1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device that provides one or more fragrances to a conditioned space and enables the selection of aromas to be easily changed when desired. The device is particularly useful in the fields of education, entertainment and medicine as well as other fields where there is a need for varying the selection of aromas over a period of time.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the fields of education and entertainment, a significant effort has been made to provide simulated experiences that are as realistic as possible. In the education arena, the effort has been most successful in emulators which strive to create the illusion of operating equipment such as aircraft or ships to provide training which would otherwise be too expensive or too dangerous. Early efforts involved the use of detailed models which were moved in response to controls such as, for example, in docking a ship. Later emulations used periscopes and lenses to more accurately recreate the view from the bridge. As computers became available, the controls were modified to provide tactile feedback which better mimicked the degree of effort required to move the controls and thus the "feel" of the helm. As the computational speed of the emulators improved, models that were initially schematic or wire-frame models became more realistic renderings of the surroundings provided on a monitor in front of the student. As the art of building simulators has advanced, the student has been placed in a controlled environment in which the sights, sounds, and attitude which the student experiences within the training module is controlled by computer to provide realistic experiences. More recently, simulation has been used to allow students to explore, "experience" and interact with a variety of environments ranging from the subatomic to the universe itself.
Many of the same interactive display principles have been adapted to the entertainment field in the form of games. Initially those games were little more than computerized boards and playing pieces for conventional games, but those were soon supplemented by role playing adventure games and simulations in which the game environment changed in response to the player's actions and a set of rules, often initially unknown to the player. The earliest of these simulations presented simple text descriptions or tables describing the environment, but soon progressed to simple animated figures moving against stock backgrounds and later to fully rendered foreground and background objects which changed to reflect the positions and actions of the characters.
Parallel developments have also occurred in the presentation of prerecorded materials such as motion pictures. The presentation of some prerecorded material enables the audience to become so involved in the material being presented that it takes on, in some ways, a semblance of reality. The screens used for viewing these works have become larger to encompass more of the visual field and the sound is supplied from multiple sources to provide the sensory illusion of sound sources which move in unison with the visual image. Attempts have been made to present slightly different images independently to the two eyes, usually by means of tinted, prismatic, or polarized glasses to create the appearance of three dimensional objects within the visual space.
As these simulations have improved, the sensory experiences of the student or game player have been manipulated to the point that the viewer becomes sufficiently immersed in the presentation of stimuli that the participant's response is difficult to distinguish from that resulting from exposure to reality. For that reason, the term "Virtual Reality" has been coined to describe a broad range of simulated experiences that are to some extent difficult to distinguish from reality. Some of the current simulations present separate, full-color views of a scene to two small, helmet mounted television screens that fill the visual field to create the illusion of full three dimensional vision. These helmets may optionally be fitted with sensors which detect the movement of the head, or even of the eyes, and allow the computer program creating the images to change the views presented in a dynamic manner. Audio information may also be provided separately and nearly simultaneously to the individual's ears to link a positionally inferred auditory source to an object presented in the visual field.
Two elements which are particularly important to the overall experience are immersion and interaction. With this in mind, it is particularly important to provide stimulation to as many sensory channels as possible and to have all of the stimulation be consistent with the material being presented. Especially in a simple, non-interactive presentation, it is desired to provide consistent stimuli for as many of the five senses as possible in order to maintain the sense of immersion.